The sky was a husky purple, the sun made the clouds into a stunning rainbow of dusk, and Seth Nathaniel Jones was sobbing in his bathroom. He sat in the bathtub with knees drawn up under his chin and shielded his rapidly swelling eye that was already a nasty shade of purple. He tried to rationalize the situation, to understand why, but he couldn't.
He sifted through his memories of his relationship with Mel trying to find something that would make him over look the travesty of their latest fight. He couldn't think of a single thing. Why had he fallen for him in the first place? Why the fuck did he move in with him knowing that he had violent tendencies? The sad part was that there was no reason. Seth didn't love this man. He was just lonely.
He let out a humorless laugh. It was kind of ironic. He let loneliness drive him into a relationship and he was alone again. Only now he was bruised and crying. He heard glass shatter in the other room and cringed. This wasn't the first time this had happened- just the first time Mel had actually hit
him
and it was going to be the last.
Seth felt the fear in him pool down in his belly and slowly churn into rage. Mel had punched him in the face- the bastard. He'd been in an abusive relationship before that took him two years to get out of. He wasn't going to make the same mistake again. He stood up, gingerly wiped his tears away, adjusted his clothes and strode into the other room. "Get the fuck out."
The tall and muscular blonde man ransacking the bedroom stopped and turned slowly to face Seth. "What?"
"I said get the fuck out. Now."
"What? Did you not get enough earlier?" Mel stepped threateningly towards Seth, malice written across his face and posture. Obviously Seth needed another lesson in discipline.
Only Seth really didn't think he needed any more lessons, one had been enough. Part of him inwardly cowered as the larger man approached but that part was ignored. The warrior in him stood up and he picked up the baseball bat leaning up against the dresser that had been put there "in case of burglars." And with odd memories of little league in his head, Seth swung it as hard as he could.
The warrior laughed at the satisfying crack the bat made against Mel's skull and spit on his downed foe. "You know Mel; I think I had quite enough earlier. In fact, I've had enough forever. If you ever come near me again I'll kill you." He looked around the room, decided he really didn't care anymore, and simply walked out of the apartment and never looked back.
**Two Months Later**
Seth browsed through the book titles on a long shelf. He sighed heavily and sat down in a near by armchair, quite bored. He was in a rut. All he did was work and read. He kept to himself and he was getting dangerously lonely yet again. He crossed his legs and put his head back as he marveled at how heavy his eyelids felt today.
Eron strummed his fingers on the counter. He loved the discounts he got by working at this bookstore, but sometimes it could be so horrendously boring! He scanned what he could see of the store and frowned. He had lost track of his favorite eye-candy. Eron didn't think the man had left yet because he hadn't bought anything. He scanned the store again and decided to go have a look. He rather liked tall-dark-and-shy. Eron had never caught his name but the man came into the store every other day to browse the fantasy section and the man almost always bought a new book.
Eron absent-mindedly toyed with the hem of his smock as he wandered around, pretending to look for books lying around that needed to be shelved, but was pleasantly surprised to find his eye-candy lying around instead. He rolled his eyes to see the man asleep in the armchair. It was adorable in a kind of sad way.
Seth woke with a start; someone was shaking him, "Sir... Sir?" He blinked repeatedly, his brain slowly groaning back to full speed as the face of the cashier appeared in front of him. "Oh, oh I'm sorry... I must have dozed off." He blushed a most vibrant pink and pretended that the weave of the carpet was intensely interesting. Why did the hot cashier have to find him? The other man's hand was still on him and he felt a dangerous stirring inside of him.
Eron laughed, a warm bubbly laugh, and gripped Seth's shoulder in a friendly way. "It's ok. The armchairs are really comfortable. I've slipped off to sleep in them myself."
Seth slowly stood, getting the cashiers help, as his knees were a little stiff. He smiled gratefully and realized he was still holding the man's hand. He snatched his own hand back quickly, covering the motion by adjusting his turtleneck.
Eron smiled warmly, and cocked his head slightly to the side, "You've been in here a lot but we have never really talked... My name's Eron, want to go get a cup of coffee? I mean, it's about time for me to close up anyway..."
